Matisse Thybulle Says Sixers Showed Early Interest and "Stayed True to Their Word"
Did the Sixers tip their hand by showing too much interest in Washington guard Matisse Thybulle?
Seems that way.
The team traded picks 24 and 33 to Boston in order to move up four spots to select Thybulle on Thursday night, and speaking to reporters via conference call later that evening, the 6’5″ Naismith Defensive Player of the Year said the Sixers showed early interest in him:
“They showed interest really, really early in the draft process. They continued to show interest and my family and my agents and I were all really excited about that because of how talented of a team and how well-run of a franchise they are. It continued to go and we trusted them and put our faith in them and here we are.”
Thybulle didn’t work out for any teams at all during the pre-draft process. Was he guaranteed a spot on a specific squad?
“Like I said before, Philly showed interest early and we just trusted them and decided we were going to put our faith in them and just kind of shut things down and see what happened on draft night. They stayed true to their word and the rest is history.”
Read into that last line what you will – “they stayed true to their word.” Receiving a promise from an NBA squad is a pretty good reason to shut it down.
I present this tweet from earlier:
Wow. The Sixers had promised Matisse Thybulle with the no. 24 pick. It shows how badly Philly wanted Thybulle to give this up: He's a potential perfect fit as a multi-positional defender who blends in on offense next to Ben and Joel. https://t.co/65FZ2BYzf7
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) June 21, 2019
A couple more key quotes from Thybulle, after the jump:
On playing 2-3 zone at Washington and how his defensive game will translate to the NBA:
“If you look back, I think I still led the PAC-12 in steals when I was playing under coach (Lorenzo) Romar. We were playing man and we switched everything. I can do it in all facets, for me it’s just a matter of figuring it out and I’m not worried that I won’t be able to, because I played man my entire life, except for two years.”
Why his three point shooting was down from 40% as a sophomore to 35% as a junior and 30% as a senior:
“With teams you gotta sacrifice, and I think for my team I had to sacrifice a little bit on the scoring end to be successful, to make all the parts work together. I think it showed that it worked because we won a good amount of games, so that’s what I’d have to say for that, just taking a step back.”
Thybulle has yet to discuss Summer League participation with the team.